Concerto for Chamber Orchestra no.1 op.16 (1961) -
the business card of Estonian music
Jaan Rääts' Chamber Concerto No. 1 Op.16 paved the way and led the way for Estonian contemporary music, and is the calling card of Estonian music.
Georg Collins wrote in the New York Times in 1963: 'The playing of the sixth work, the Concerto for Chamber Orchestra by the young Estonian composer Jaan Rääts, was equally flawless.../.../ The conductor of this excellent orchestra is Rudolf Baršai.'" (Collins, New York Times 1963) In 1963, Thomas Russell wrote about the performance of the concert in the Daily Worker.
Neeme Järvi: 'His Concerto for Chamber Orchestra was masterly written and became popular immediately after its premiere with the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra. Rudolf Baršai has performed it with the Moscow Chamber Orchestra all over the world. Rääts' symphonies and instrumental concertos were constantly in the repertoire of our orchestras." (EMIK 2008, p. 9)
Journey of the concerto
Jaan Rääts' Chamber Concerto No. 1 Op.16 was premiered by the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra19 in 1961 at the University of Tartu auditorium, conducted by Neeme Järvi. The concert's international success was aided by the Armenian composer Aram Khachaturian, who, fascinated by the rhythmic quality of the concerto, introduced the score to Rudolf Baršai, creator and conductor of the Moscow Chamber Orchestra. The work, composed in 1961, was performed on 26 January 1963 by the Moscow Chamber Orchestra and Rudolf Baršai in Paris, France, at the Comedie des Champs-Elysees, a prestigious concert hall.
On 17 October 1963, the concerto was premiered in England at The Royal Festival Hall, and in October 1993 at Carnegie Hall in New York, where the finale of the concerto was performed. 19 Season 1960/61/.../ Neeme Järvi took up the position of full conductor of the orchestra, and under his enthusiastic leadership the Tallinn Chamber Orchestra was founded in the autumn of that year from the musicians of the Estonian Radio Symphony Orchestra. (Hargel, Kasema 2011, p. 49). 18 Eesti Päevaleht 23 November 1989 17 Thomas Russell "The ghostly masters from Moscow (Royal Festival Hall), Daily Worker, 19.10.1963. 52 repetitions. (EMIK 2008)
Today, Rääts' Chamber Concerto op. 16 continues to be one of the most performed works of Estonian music in the world. It has been performed more than 2,500 times in nearly 80 countries, including Japan, France, Israel, England, the USA, Ireland, the Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Belgium, Romania, Yugoslavia, Bulgaria, Finland, Italy, Sweden, Norway, Denmark, Hungary, Kenya, Poland, Tunisia, Switzerland, Denmark, the Czech Republic, Turkey, Hungary, Russia, Brazil and Mexico. In 1991, it was performed in four concerts in New York's Avery Fisher Hall by the New York Philharmonic Orchestra, and on 12 December 1993, it was performed by the Philharmonic Orchestra of the New York Philharmonic Orchestra. In Tel Aviv and Jerusalem, the Israel Philharmonic Orchestra conducted by Neeme Järvi. Saulius Sondeckis was instrumental in the worldwide dissemination of the work when he included it in the repertoire of the Lithuanian Chamber Orchestra at the end of the 1960s, and the work, conducted by Rudolf Barshai and Saulius Sondeckis, spread to all continents of the world. In 1972, the Chamber Orchestra of the Moscow Conservatoire under the baton of Mikhail Terian won the von Karajan World Competition for Youth Orchestras in Berlin with Rääts' Concerto Op. 16.
